Newsletters & Alerts

Choosing the right Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is one of the many challenges construction companies face. Choosing the wrong ERP system can potentially hold a company back, however, the right system can substantially propel a company forward—especially in the areas of cash flow and profitability.

The IRS has some good news for certain taxpayers — it’s waiving underpayment penalties for those whose 2018 federal income tax withholding and estimated tax payments came in under their actual tax liabilities for the year.

The Tax Cut & Jobs Act of 2017 provided a new Section 199A deduction on qualified business income for certain pass through entities (sole proprietorships, partnerships & S corps). This deduction, which is generally 20% of QBI with certain limitations, is temporary and expires at the end of tax year 2025.

One issue plaguing the construction industry revolves around a labor shortage. This has been a hot topic the last few years and is likely to continue in 2019 as companies continue to earn higher and higher revenues and maintain healthy and growing backlogs.

The New Jersey construction community received a New Year’s gift at the end of December: an announcement from the Murphy administration adding over $400 million in new projects currently under design, as well as accelerating its first quarter 2019 construction program, giving much promise to 2019!

Many businesses still have questions regarding meal and entertainment expenses for 2018. The IRS recently amended IRC Sec. 274, relating to deductibility of business meals, eliminating deductions with respect to most entertainment, amusement or recreational activities.

The impact of 2017’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “New Law”) on funds, their managers and investors is hard to understate. In this executive summary of year-end tax issues to consider, we highlight issues for your consideration.

On October 19, 2018 the Treasury and IRS issued proposed regulations on the new Opportunity Zone Tax incentive created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) encouraging economic growth and development through private investment in specific low-income or rural communities and disaster areas.

As you may have seen in our social media posts, October is Cyber Awareness Month. In keeping with our intention to keep our clients informed, it’s very important for us to assist you in helping to grow in your understanding of how to identify potentially dangerous emails.

For the past eight months, tax practitioners have been reviewing and interpreting the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) associated with the pass-through deduction (Sec. 199A) and awaiting additional guidance.

The New Jersey Paid Sick Leave Act was signed into law on May 2 by Gov. Phil Murphy and will go into effect on Oct. 29. Once effective, it will require New Jersey employers of all sizes to provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year to covered employees.

As NFL training camps are opening up, it is imperative for players and their loved ones to understand how to navigate business opportunities, multi-state taxes, residence choice, how to account for in-season and off-season expenses, budget earnings and make sure there is enough cash flow to last the entire off-season.

Over the course of the past few years, you may have heard rumblings about significant changes in our accounting guidance as it relates to how companies recognize revenue. The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued “ASURevenue From Contracts With Customers (Topic 606)”, which is effective for public business entities, beginning after December 15, 2017; and private companies for periods beginning after December 15, 2018.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 created code section 1400Z, which is designed to encourage economic growth and development through private investment in specific low income or rural communities and disaster areas.

Today’s ruling, in South Dakota V.Wayfair, paves the way for states to tax ALL e-commerce sales made to customers in their state. This means that online retailers of all types will have to register, collect and remit sales tax and file sales tax returns in each state in which they make sales. Gone are the days that a company would be required to have employees or a physical location in the state to require such filings and tax collections. Physical presence is still required for Income tax. The Wrigley US Supreme Court case is still in effect for Income tax. Wayfair supersedes the Quill US Supreme court case for sales tax.

In keeping with the new Local Law 196 of 2017, the Department of Buildings (DOB) is planning unannounced site checks where untrained workers have been found and will target other jobs of permit holders in violation.

The thought behind merging two companies together is to increase the value of each—the idea that two are better than one. Today’s not-for-profit sector is experiencing an unprecedented change which is moving many NFP organizations to consider merger and acquisition activity.

On April 12th, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law the New York State budget bill, that among other things, created an employer payroll tax and new charitable contribution funds to offset the impact of the $10,000 federal cap on state and local tax deductions under the Federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

The IRS announced on March 13th its intention to end the 2014 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (“OVDP”) on September 28, 2018. Many tax practitioners knew this was inevitable but didn’t know when it would happen.

To strengthen the partnership between New York City and our human service nonprofit sector, we feature updates from The Mayor’s Office of Contract Services (MOCS). MOCS oversees New York City procurement and works with City agencies, vendors and community-based organizations to ensure that the contracting process is fair, efficient, transparent and cost-effective.

Divorce can be a time of great uncertainty for families. With both partners’ worlds turned upside down, everyone is trying to figure out the best way to survive the process. While a myriad of confusing questions come to the forefront, the first one to address is whether or not the divorce will actually be granted.

Cyberattacks and data breaches are commonplace in the news now—it would be easy to miss the changing trend on where these attacks are being focused. Financial institutions and banks will always be prime targets due to the information they contain, but the marked increase of attacks aimed at non-profit organizations, with particular focus on charitable and educational institutions, isn’t as understood.

In the world of Manufacturing and Distribution, many CEO’s and CFO’s are convinced they are simply too busy managing daily business operations and finance to find the time to critically review their company’s day-to-day ERP system processes. While it’s a fact they are busy, there also tends to be a vague resistance to initiate this study, as if it is too big of an initiative for them to successfully manage.

Divorce is a big issue in today’s ever changing economy. According to the national center for health statistics, as of 2014 in the United States there were 2,140,270 marriages, however, on average 50% of marriages end in divorce. Divorces can typically be complicated, but even more so when a business is involved. Below are five issues that business valuators consider when valuing a business for a matrimonial action.

Section 2704 was enacted in 1990 as part of Chapter 14 with the aim of limiting discounts for certain family partnerships or limited liability company interests that are transferred to family members and to prevent strategies that were being used to artificially lower estate and gift tax liability.

In the competitive world of investing, it could be quite tough to launch your fund, seek capital and then deploy that capital. But what about keeping it going so that you can reap the rewards? Although many things happen that are beyond one’s control, any of these, by themselves, are enough to cause investors to flee. They could include a host of things including underperformance to a benchmark, losses over time, volatility, lost faith in management, or even a sudden loss of interest in a certain type of investment style or sector.

If you own a business and have ever wondered what it is actually worth, or, if you have given serious thought on what will happen to your business upon death and what the ultimate impact would be on family members from a cash flow perspective, then you may want to consider succession planning.

In April of this year, Governor Cuomo signed into law the Paid Family Leave Act enabling workers with up to 12 weeks of paid leave a year to care for a seriously ill family member or newborn, or address issues from a family member’s military service. The law will apply to all employees who are covered by the state’s temporary disability insurance law, regardless of their employer’s size, and who have been employed for 26 or more consecutive weeks.

Target, Ashley Madison, the DNC, Twitter, LinkedIn, PayPal, multiple healthcare institutions—it seems not a day goes by we’re not hearing about another data breach. Whether it’s a nation-state infiltrating governmental institutions, a breach of usernames and passwords that have numbered into the millions in a single instance, or, the most prevalent of them all, another case of ransomware holding files hostage until a payment is made. It often feels like we’re being inundated to the point of exhaustion and it seems to happen so often that there’s nothing to do to protect ourselves from being the next victim. The ugly truth is that there’s no way of ensuring, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that one will not fall victim themselves. The good news is that there are steps that can be taken to help lower an attack profile, greatly reducing the chances of being victimized.

If you are in the process of selling real estate for a profit—whether you are an investment professional or not—your goal is to most likely defer your taxes. If so, it’s a safe bet that you’ve heard of the term “1031 exchange”.There is plenty of information floating around that makes it possible for the novice to perform the 1031 exchange steps.

Is your business behind on EFTPS (Electronic Federal Tax Payment System) payments for federal employment taxes? If so, you may get an unexpected visit from an IRS Revenue Officer as part of the EFTPS Early Alert program being implemented in 2016. The visit will be unannounced and will occur before the employment tax return is filed or tax is assessed. Your late-paid electronic federal tax deposits will trigger an FTD alert that is shared with the IRS in June, September, December and March. This alert will be coded (A) or (B).

As a result of the enactment of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, portability was made permanent in the transfer tax system. But what is portability and how does it affect individuals who remarry?

The Financial Accounting Standards Board, (“FASB”) established the Simplification Initiative with the goal of simplifying the complexity of the financial information reported to investors and other users while reducing the cost of preparing the financial statements.

Tax season for 2015 has finally wrapped. Are you wondering if you should have gotten a bigger refund or if you over paid? One of the main challenges of any construction contractor is cash flow, after all cash is king, but what many contractors aren’t aware of are little tax incentives that can yield BIG savings. Three of the most lucrative incentives are: the Section 179D tax deduction, the Research & Development (R&D) tax credit, and the Cost Segregation Study.

While the construction industry has become more informed about the inefficiencies within the current construction process, adopting a Lean approach to improve project planning and efficiencies—resulting in increased client satisfaction—has only been partially assimilated into the industry. The most important challenge to having these cohesive principles adopted by the majority seems to be lack of industry understanding of Lean.

The year 2015 saw an unprecedented increase in cyber attacks with hackers hitting companies and government agencies month after month, with alarming results. It is estimated that 300 million records were leaked in 2015, and over $1 billion stolen. (Szoldra, Paul. (December 29, 2015) “The 9 Worst Cyber Attacks of 2015.” TECH Insider.) With cyber breaches of Ashley Madison, health insurer Anthem, Inc., JP Morgan Chase, and even the White House in 2014, there is no denying THIS is a serious problem! But what’s worse than stolen identities, money and personal records, are the threat these breaches are now having on lives, as two of the latest hack jobs were performed on hospital chains, forcing some patients to be moved to other hospitals for testing purposes.

You may share a link to this page on any of the sites listed below:

About us

Grassi & Co. is an independent member firm of Moore Stephens North America, which is itself a regional member of Moore Stephens International Limited (MSIL). All the firms in MSIL are independent entities, owned and managed in each location. Their membership in, or association with, Moore Stephens International Limited should not be construed as constituting or implying any partnership between them.